Friday, November 02, 2012

Like we didn't all know that?

By Capt. Fogg

No shit! Now say that with as much condescending and snarky
cynicism as you can manage and yet it won't be enough to fit the
circumstance. You see, the central tenet of Republican politics has
been the idea that cutting the tax rates for the very wealthy will spur
the economy and yet, as far as I can tell the evidence for that has been
the repetition of the formula in very stentorian and hortatory tones.
In fact all the evidence I can see, and many economists agree, suggest
that quite the opposite is true and reduced sufficiently, the economy
will at first experience soaring markets and catastrophic busts and
recessions. And of course we've seen some very prosperous times with
90% tax brackets for earned income and much higher rates on Capital
gains. One can argue all day about what should happen according to one
hypotheses or conjecture, but of course most people have learned in the
last half millennium that the outcome of experiment, of experience
counts more than dialectic and endless repetitions of doctrine. It
wasn't politics that settled the question of how fast things would fall
after all.

But it seems to be politics that has to
decide for all time whether the very wealthy are "job creators" who will
create more and better jobs if they have sufficient capital, because
experience shows otherwise. The numbers history gives us show otherwise
and like so many battles involving politics and religion, those made
powerful through those things have to resort to things other than honest
numbers. The other lesson of history is that denial, anger and
retribution are the responses of religious and political power,
threatened by strongly supported truth.

So you're not going to be surprised to hear that a report by the research service,
a nonpartisan arm of the Library of Congress argues that the
foundations of the Republican edifice are as solid as Lamarkian
evolution, an Apache rain dance or the Heliocentric universe. Actually
they've been far easier to refute. Supply side economics is a crock. No shit!
Is this the first time you've bothered to seek confirmation of that
whackadoodle gospel? Didja examine entrails, consult the oracle,
sacrifice a goat? Well you know about those first stages of grief.
Denial and anger, right? So withdraw the research and repeat the catechism sirs -- and do it loud!